296 ON THE STATE OF IRELAND. [BOOK III. 



REMARKS. 



In this, as in the preceding Sections, the Com- 

 missioners forget they have before proved that 

 there exist no such depots as they allude to. It 

 seems therefore, that before appointing all the 

 forms under which mendicants who propagate con- 

 tagious diseases should enter, it would be necessary 

 for these buildings to be erected ; and as they pro- 

 pose only local taxes for this purpose, which no 

 one is able to pay, all their projects of legislation 

 are for the present entirely visionary. 



If it were permitted, there would be erected, 

 without the imposition of any tax, ten monasteries, 

 where all these miserable people would meet with 

 hospitality, before the taxes had afforded the means 

 of building a single depot, which in fact is only a 

 prison destined for the innocent. 



SECTION XXVII. 



MEASURES RECOMMENDED FOR INDIGENT PERSONS. 



BESIDES these several provisions, we think, as we have 

 stated, that provisions should be made by law towards 

 the relief of the aged and infirm, orphans, helpless widows 

 with young children, and destitute persons in general. 



